P. L. Travers, a London author who is financially broke, visits Los Angeles to meet Walt Disney, who is keen to adapt her Mary Poppins books for the cinema. However, his methods do not meet her approval.
When Walt Disney's (Tom Hanks') daughters begged him to make a movie of their favorite book, P.L. Travers' (Emma Thompson's) "Mary Poppins", he made them a promise - one that he didn't realize would take twenty years to keep. In his quest to obtain the rights, Walt comes up against a curmudgeonly, uncompromising writer who has absolutely no intention of letting her beloved magical nanny get mauled by the Hollywood machine. But, as the books stop selling and money grows short, Travers reluctantly agrees to go to Los Angeles, California to hear Disney's plans for the adaptation. For those two short weeks in 1961, Walt Disney pulls out all of the stops. Armed with imaginative storyboards and chirpy songs from the talented Richard M. Sherman (Jason Schwartzman) and Robert B. Sherman (B.J. Novak), Walt launches an all-out onslaught on P.L. Travers, but the prickly author doesn't budge. He soon begins to watch helplessly as Travers becomes increasingly immovable and the rights begin to move further away from his grasp. It is only when he reaches into his own childhood that Walt discovers the truth about the ghosts that haunt her, and together they set Mary Poppins free to ultimately make one of the most endearing movies in cinematic history.—Walt Disney Pictures
Walter Elias Disney (Tom Hanks) wants to use the book "Mary Poppins" for a movie but author P.L. Travers (Dame Emma Thompson) doesn't like what he does. So for twenty years, Disney kept asking her to let him do it. Eventually, when she's financially strapped, she considers it, but won't approve unless Disney does it as she wants it. So she goes to Los Angeles, California and Disney and his team, who work on bringing the character of Mary Poppins to life, try to show her what they did. But she's not easily impressed. Even Disney tries to understand what she wants.—[email protected]
1961. For twenty years through their respective representatives, Walter Elias Disney (Tom Hanks) has tried so far unsuccessfully to purchase the rights from British author P.L. Travers (Dame Emma Thompson) for her series of Mary Poppins books to make into a movie. Travers has felt protective of her material, especially against Disney, as she sees the Disney brand as not meshing with her stories. She fears that Disney will turn the stories into a saccharine animated mess as she doesn't want her Mary Poppins to become synonymous with Mickey Mouse. But Travers, who has not written voluntarily in years and is running out of money, agrees now at least to meet with Disney's representatives in Los Angeles, California to go through the script, as she has managed to gain script approval before she signs over the rights, something Disney has never agreed to with anyone else. Those representatives are most specifically the project's Screenwriter Don DaGradi (Bradley Whitford) and Songwriter brothers Richard M. Sherman (Jason Schwartzman) and Robert B. Sherman (B.J. Novak), the latter two who irk Travers, if only because she also does not see a Mary Poppins movie as being a musical. Disney and Travers find that they are the antithesis of each other in almost every respect, his casualness in dealing with people on a first name basis against her wishes to be more formal in calling and being called by one's surname preceded by the appropriate honorific only the most obvious example. Although not in the script meetings, Disney gets wind either directly or indirectly of the difficulties in the script negotiations, where he sees most of her demands as being overly unreasonable to kibosh the project purposefully. For the negotiations to be successful, Disney and his representatives will have to learn that Travers' protectiveness is due to the relationships she had with who were the inspirations for the characters of Mary Poppins, and most specifically, Mr. George W. Banks.—Huggo
Author P. L. Travers (Dame Emma Thompson) created a famous fictional character resembles her childhood memories named "Mary Poppins". Even after the worldwide success of the book, she remained over-protective towards her characters by not being keen to transform her dreams into the movies. She hates that any producer might turn this novel, which is an integral part of her early life, to a mere child comedy. Cometh the famed producer Walter Elias Disney (Tom Hanks), who was inclined to turn this novel into a movie after being read it by his daughter who was absolutely in love with the character. To make his dream a reality, he persuades P. L. Travers to every possible extent. After the initial clashes of personalities, ultimately, Travers gives in to the tenacity of Disney, thus, a gem of a movie is created.—Spandan Roy
In London in 1961, financially struggling author Pamela "P. L." Travers (Emma Thompson) reluctantly agrees to travel to Los Angeles to meet with Walt Disney (Tom Hanks) at the urging of her agent Diarmuid Russell (Ronan Vibert). Disney has been courting Travers for 20 years, seeking to acquire the film rights to her Mary Poppins stories, on account of his daughters' request to make a film based on the character. Travers, however, has been extremely hesitant toward letting Disney adapt her creation to the screen because he is known primarily as a producer of animated films, which Travers openly disdains.
Her youth in Allora, Queensland in 1906 is depicted through flashbacks, and is shown to be the inspiration for much of Mary Poppins. Travers was very close to her handsome and charismatic father Travers Robert Goff (Colin Farrell), who fought a losing battle against alcoholism.
Upon her arrival in Los Angeles, Travers is disgusted by what she feels is the city's unreality, as well as by the naive optimism and intrusive friendliness of its inhabitants, personified by her assigned limo driver, Ralph (Paul Giamatti).At the Walt Disney Studios in Burbank, Travers begins collaborating with the creative team assigned to develop Mary Poppins for the screen, screenwriter Don DaGradi (Bradley Whitford), and music composers Richard and Robert Sherman (Jason Schwartzman and B.J. Novak respectively). She finds their presumptions and casual manners as highly improper, a view she also reciprocates on the jocular Disney upon meeting him in person.
Travers' working relationship with the creative team is difficult from the outset, with her insistence that Mary Poppins is the enemy of sentiment and whimsy. Disney and his associates are puzzled by Travers' disdain for fantasy, given the fantastical nature of the Mary Poppins story, as well as Travers' own richly imaginative childhood existence. Travers has particular trouble with the team's depiction of George Banks. Travers describes Banks' characterization as completely off-base and leaves a session distraught. The team begins to grasp how deeply personal the Mary Poppins stories are to Travers, and how many of the work's characters are directly inspired by Travers' own past.
For ex Mr Bank's character is based on Traver's own father, who was an alcoholic & a manager at a Bank in Australia. Traver's father was not very successful at his job due to his drinking problem & is often ridiculed by his boss in front of his daughters & the public. Traver's father tries very hard, but is eventually diagnosed with liver trouble due to his drinking. Disney's creative team, going through her books, interprets Bank's character as a cruel banker, who is out to scam people. This does not go down well with Travers.
In fact, the character Mary Poppins is also loosely based on the nanny that her parents hired when Travers's father was diagnosed with problems. The new nanny is a stickler to discipline & promises to fix everything. Even then, shortly thereafter, Travers's dad dies & she blames the nanny as she had "promised to fix everything".
Travers' collaboration with the team continues, although she is increasingly disengaged as painful memories from her past numb her in the present. Seeking to find out what's troubling her, Disney invites Travers to Disneyland, which-along with her progressive friendship with Ralph, the creative team's revisions to George Banks, and the insertion of a new song to close the film-help to soften Travers. Her imagination begins to reawaken, and she engages enthusiastically with the creative team.
This progress is upended, however, when Travers discovers that an animation sequence is being planned for the film, a decision that she has been adamantly against of accepting. She confronts and denounces a protesting Disney, angrily declaring that she will not sign over the film rights and returns to London. Disney discovers that Travers is writing under a pen name; her real name being Helen Goff. Equipped with new insight, he departs for London, determined to salvage the film. Appearing unexpectedly at Travers' residence, Disney opens up-describing his own less-than-ideal childhood, while stressing the healing value of his art-and urges her to shed her deeply-rooted disappointment with the world. Travers relents and grants him the film rights.
Three years later, in 1964, Mary Poppins is nearing its world premiere at Grauman's Chinese Theatre. Travers has not been invited because Disney fears that she will give the film negative publicity. Goaded by her agent, Travers returns to Los Angeles, showing up uninvited in Disney's office, and finagles an invitation to the premiere. She watches Mary Poppins initially with scorn, reacting with particular dismay to the animated sequence. She slowly warms to the film, however, and is ultimately surprised to find herself overcome by emotion, touched by the depiction of George Banks' redemption, which clearly possesses a powerful personal significance for her.During the end credits, a surviving recording of one of the actual sessions between Travers, the Sherman Brothers and DaGradi plays out.
